Sixty Islamic scholars and preachers issued a statement on Wednesday in which they provided that it is not permissible to divide Sudan, asserting that voting for the secession of southern Sudan from the north is religiously forbidden by Islamic law.

Sixty Islamic scholars and preachers issued a statement on Wednesday in which they provided that it is not permissible to divide Sudan, asserting that voting for the secession of southern Sudan from the north is religiously forbidden by Islamic law.

They argued that the issue of South Sudan is not a question of civil war, but a global conspiracy to exclude Arabism and Islam, fuelled by many bodies, regional and international, in the forefront of Zionism and the global crusade, not against Sudan alone, as Southern Sudan is the gateway to Islam and Arabism in Africa.

Signatories to the statement:

Dr. Yusuf al-Qaradawi - Chairman of the International Union for Muslim Scholars,Dr. Abdul Rahman Al-Barr - Professor of Hadith and its sciences at Al-Azhar University and a member of the Executive Bureau of the Muslim Brotherhood,Prof. Yusuf Hibir Nur al-Da'im, Controller-General of the Muslim Brotherhood in Sudan, and,Dr. Nasr Farid Wasel - former Grand Mufti of Egypt